Coffee records

Following last week's look
at world records associated with tea, this week it's the turn of
coffee:

-The most espressos made in
one hour by a team is 12,003. The record was set by the London Belle
Baristas in 2011 during the London coffee festival. 100 baristas took
part in the attempt, using 31 espresso machines.

-The largest cup of coffee
ever made measured in at 13,200 litres, in a cup 9ft 6in tall and 8ft
8in wide. It was made by De'Longhi in London in 2012.

-The largest cafetière
was made by Salzillo Tea and Coffee in Spain in 2007. Constructed
using stainless steel, it measured 7ft 6in in height and 2ft 4in
wide.

-The most expensive coffee
in the world, Black Ivory, are beans that have been through an
elephant's digestive system, similar to those from the civet. The
coffee beans are $500 per pound, and used in a number of luxury
hotels in Thailand, the Maldives and the Arab Emirates. One can only
hope that elephants are not subjected to the same level of abuse as
thousands of palm civets now suffer, as individuals attempt to cash
in on what was the world's most expensive coffee.

-A modified 1988 Volkswagon
Scirocco ran for 337 km from London to Manchester using coffee. The
car uses hydrogen as a fuel, which it derived from the coffee beans
by heating them in a charcoal fire before cooling and filtering the
resulting gas to obtain the hydrogen.